Open chest hatchling snake

This is a corn snake who went full term in the egg but his chest did not close. The video shows his heart beating outside his chest.

It was discovered to be in this condition hours after it had pipped. (Pippies normally sit in the egg for up to 24-48 hours, so there were no unusual signs until it was found collapsed/unconscious.) When I cut the egg open to see if it was dead, and if I might find clues of what was wrong, I found what you see here. It was already unconscious, so I took a couple pics, and this video of the heart beating, and then euthanized it by freezing.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• birth
• defect
• snake

[perpexel]

is freezing really a good way to euthanize considering they are cold blooded?

[serpwidgets]

@perpexel It was already unconscious.

[feebix]

I`ve had eggs full of bits like hearts and livers and stuff but this is incredible. Almost like a hair lip gene in snakes but with the chest. Huh... That`s mad. I bet your eyes nearly fell out of your head! I often wonder when I`ll get a two headed snake or something, that`s actually a fairly common deformitiy in snakes too......

[serpwidgets]

@feebix There is a common process in embryo development when the left/right halves fuse in back and front. It starts by the head and works its way down like a zipper. This type of defect is relatively common (compared to other defects that I've seen.) I also hatched a two-bodied (as opposed to two headed) ghost corn.

[dbunn15]

This sounds inapropriate but freezing isn't the fastes way, cutting it's head off even, isn't the fastest wAy, if you wanted it to be 100,000 % unfelf for the snake; it's called the 10/4/10. Ten yards, 410 shot gun. This sounds very bad and cruel, but think of it this way, the animal doesn't feel a thing and all the other birds and ants and foxes get easy food

[serpwidgets]

@dbunn15 What do you think you're going to hit from ten yards away? The snake is smaller than a pencil. And what makes you think it would be "fast" if you miraculously hit anything?

[LoftLizard]

thanks for posting and for not going to any extremes measure to save the snake.... you did the humane thing.

[HauntedBatrachian]

interesting, yet odd.. it was smart to video-document this before taking any other action, though. i've actually never seen that before... ever.

euthanasia was the prudent way to go. well done, and sorry for the loss.

[KestrelJames]

@dbunn15 TO kill an animal, in the most humain way possible, get some dry ice, & a mason jar withj a wire mesh lid. DO NOT EVER put dry ice in an air tight contain, IT WILL EXPLODE, it becomes a bomb, & even accidentlally it's a felony. Anyway, get an ice chest, put thje jar in the ice chest for a few minutes - CO2 is heavier than the air you breathe. It will fill the ice chest up with CO2 gas. Animals lapse into unconsciousness in seconds & death within a minute. Or viniger & baking soda.

[neromydog]

yikes

[Tayjar88]

How did that happen thats wierd

[RayKanen69]

That is so sad, poor thing. :(

[gothchik666]

aww poor little thing. :/

[MrTalkire]

is it alive

[feebix]

How long did that survive for?